UChicago Medicine, Franciscan Alliance Announce Regional Partnership

Affiliation to boost access to primary and specialty care and clinical research

November 19, 2013

The University of Chicago Medicine and Franciscan Alliance have entered into a master affiliation agreement that creates a novel partnership between a prominent academic medical center and a leading regional health system. The affiliation provides for the joint development and implementation of clinical, research and educational initiatives.

Officials from both institutions emphasized the synergies that will result from the affiliation agreement, which focuses on the University of Chicago Medicine and Franciscan Alliance's Northwest Indiana facilities including Crown Point, Michigan City, Dyer, Hammond and Munster.

"By combining the world- class tertiary and quaternary care and research capabilities of the University of Chicago Medicine with Franciscan Alliance's extensive network of community-based hospitals and ambulatory centers, we will enhance patient care locally and provide seamless access and continuity for patients needing care at any level," said Kevin Leahy, Franciscan Alliance's president and chief executive officer.

Franciscan Alliance, one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the Midwest, has emerged as a leader in new approaches to payment and care delivery models. In December 2011, it formed the Franciscan Alliance Accountable Care Organization, the first and only federally recognized "Pioneer ACO" in Indiana and among the first in the country to partner with Medicare as an ACO. Headquartered in Mishawaka, Franciscan Alliance provides primary and specialty care services throughout its multi-state hospital system that includes more than 40 ambulatory sites.

The University of Chicago Medicine, an academic medical institution that includes the Pritzker School of Medicine, ranked eighth among medical schools in the country, attracts patients regionally, nationally and internationally for its specialty care services. Its faculty physicians undertake research in an extensive array of areas and are in the top five U.S. medical schools in generating federal research dollars per faculty member.

"This partnership brings together two health care systems that share both a dedication to excellence in patient care and a desire to develop new models of care in a rapidly changing health care marketplace," said Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, executive vice president for medical affairs at the University of Chicago and dean of the Biological Sciences Division and the Pritzker School of Medicine. "We are committed to continually improving access, efficiency and outcomes, and to extending clinical research into new arenas. Our goal is to provide a coordinated system of value-based care for patients across the region."

About the University of Chicago MedicineThe University of Chicago Medicine has been at the forefront of medical care since 1927. Located in historic Hyde Park on the South Side of Chicago, the medical campus has 577 licensed beds and includes the new Center for Care and Discovery, Comer Children's Hospital, Bernard A. Mitchell Hospital for adult inpatient care and the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine. The University of Chicago Medicine has more than 800 faculty physicians and physician offices across Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana. In fiscal year 2013, it had more than 26,000 discharges, 421,000 outpatient visits and $1.3 billion in net patient care revenues.

About Franciscan AllianceThe Franciscan Alliance healthcare ministry began in Lafayette, Ind., in 1875. Today, Franciscan Alliance is one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the Midwest with 13 hospital campuses, 20,000 employees and a number of nationally recognized Centers of Health Care Excellence. Franciscan Alliance provides for more than 2.9 million outpatient visits; over 100,000 annual inpatient discharges with annual revenues of $2.4 billion. Hospitals include: Franciscan St. Anthony Health- Crown Point; Franciscan St. Anthony Health-Michigan City.; Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health-Crawfordsville; Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health- Lafayette East; Franciscan St. Elizabeth Health-Lafayette Central; Franciscan St. Francis Health-Carmel; Franciscan St. Francis Health- Indianapolis; Franciscan St. Francis Health-Mooresville; Franciscan St. James Health-Chicago Heights, Ill.; Franciscan St. James Health-Olympia Fields, Ill.; Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Hammond; Franciscan St. Margaret Health-Dyer; and Franciscan Healthcare-Munster.